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India, Canada to discuss carbon reduction strategies

India Blooms News Service

New Delhi, Nov 28 (IBNS): Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in collaboration with Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) is all set to organise a day-long conference on strategies for reducing carbon emissions during power generation.

Scores of clean coal technologists from Canada and India will converge here on Dec 4 to participate in the conference.

In a first of its kind initiative by the Academy of Engineering from both Canada and India, the technologists would focus on sharing their latest findings in this space as also exploring potential partnership areas.

The CAE delegation will be led by Prof. Ravi Ravindran of Ryerson University, Canada.

Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) B Prasada Rao will inaugurate the conference at the India International Center, New Delhi.

The conference is being hosted by INAE and CAE as part of INAE’s silver jubilee celebrations.

Shyam Saran who served as Special Envoy on Climate Change to the Prime Minister of India will deliver the valedictory address.

A panel of eminent Indian experts from coal R&D, industry and government as well as non-governmental agencies will interact with the members of both delegations to identify areas suitable for Indo-Canadian Joint initiatives and the nature of such initiatives.

INAE distinguished professor at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad K V Raghavan, will lead the Indian team.

Raghavan said, "Coal being the premier source of energy for power generation, in both India and Canada, there are common environmental concerns arising from large scale coal processing."

"A typical 500 megawatt coal based power plant is estimated to emit three million tons of carbon dioxide annually and its recovery and usage is a huge technological challenge," added Raghavan who also serves as the Vice President of the INAE.

Even though, India is the world’s third largest producer of coal with 93 billion tonnes of recoverable resource, its high ash content is the main bottleneck for several application areas, he said.

"India is, therefore, importing good quality coal from other countries. India has over 200 coal based thermal power plants while Canada has around 50."